RRO Budget Lift issues

[UC3Caveman]

I have the 3" Rocky Road Outfitters Budget Lift on my 02 KJ and I'm running 235/85r16's.
I've noticed two main things:
1: the spring contacts the upper control arm at full hang. So farm I'm too lazy and cheap to fix this...
2: the sway bar end links seem to wear out. I believe it's due to the fact that it's being pulled inward from the lower control arm being at its new angle. It seems like the bushing wear out and in doing such, become "loose". This in turn seems to cause a binding that is released with a loud pop when turning in reverse.

Has anyone else encountered this issue? If so what have you done to correct it?


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[Luke]

You probably won't like the answer ... :hidesbehindsofa:

 

[tommudd]

Nope he sure won't but I'll jump in and upset him..................
Its the spacer lift from RRO that is causing the issues
For one you have weak springs and unless you replaced the shocks they are shot as well. Now spacer lifts are well known to premature wear items like sway bar links, Upper Control Arms/ ball joints etc
The best you can do is install Teraflex bumpstops in the front, but in the end the only real cure is to replace everything and get a good full spring lift

I bought my ARB for cheap back in 05 due to the people using that same exact lift you have, after replacing sway bar bushings twice, 3 right side UCAs, 2 left side, and then a wreck they came to the conclusion that there was no way to lift the KJ.
By the way mines been lifted over 170,000 miles, still same sway bar links, lower ball joints replaced at 90,000 due to the cheap OEMs, of course ungraded to JBA UCAs and no issues .

 

[UC3Caveman]

What do you mean by weak springs? The front shocks should be alright considering theyd been replaced not all that long before it was lifted.
I believe most of my rubbing is due to the tire being slightly to large for the lift, unless of course others are running the same sort of setup w/o issue.

What sort of full spring lifts are there for the front end? Also, does the clevis lift cause the same sort of issues?


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[tommudd]

Clevis lift is different plus you're only adding 3/8 of an inch
tire size has nothing to do with sway bar links
weak springs?? KJ springs are weak to begin with, add 50-75,000 miles and you have them sagged 1/2 to one inch already. have had them in here with 90,000 miles and sagged over an inch ( actually 1.5 inches lower than new)
So just replacing the shocks didn't help much
Full spring lifts, OME or Ironman
In over 9 years on these KJ forums I've never seen anyone that ran that lift with no issues, most are swapped out in a few months ( if they went to RRO in the first place)

 

[wheeee32]

When you hear a lot of people say OME or Ironman they know what they are talking about. I'm one of the most recent with OME on mine. I can also say like most that I too wish I had put it on sooner. It rides so much better than stock.:smokin:

 

[UC3Caveman]

Thanks for your input. I'll definitely be looking into those setups.
Another issue I've noticed is that I'm getting shimmy from 40-50mph that looks violent if you hold the wheel lightly, and is moderate if you hold it firmly. Above 50, it's still there, but it's rather faint.
Assuming I've checked them properly, ball joints, and tie rods seem fine. The tires are equalled and it was aligned after it was lifted.
Also, it occurred even when my sway bar end links were new.

I was thinking that May because of the contact with the spring at full hang that maybe I'm unable to notice a bad ball joint? Or possibly I managed to knock it out of alignment?

I didn't have this problem at first after the lift. Although I did get a vibration that seemed to come from improperly balanced tires which is what lead me to the equal. When I went to equal, the front tires had begun cupping, and that issue seems to have been resolved since the Equal.


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[tommudd]

If the tires were cupped then the vibration could be from them. People think that if they fix the problem that caused the issue with cupping then they are fine. problem is once a tire starts to cup it will continue to wear in that same pattern and actually get worse as time goes on.
Have you rotated front to rear to see if it still does it ( vibration)

 

[UC3Caveman]

Yes I forgot to mention that they were rotated and Equaled at the same time.


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[u2slow]

From what I gather, the RRO budget lift is the same type as the Teraflex kit. If you get the tubular upper arms, they have more room for the coil. I wasn't happy with the OE disposable control control arm anyways.

I also noticed the lower control arm bushing walk fore and aft a bit, so I limited their motion with some large flat washers.